Just this past July, Ken Shamrock (Pictures) wasn’t sure he would ever make his way back into the Octagon — as a participant anyway.

Shamrock had just lost via stoppage when referee Herb Dean (Pictures) stepped in to pull Tito Ortiz (Pictures) off the Lion’s Den patriarch after a series of unanswered elbows. In Shamrock’s mind, Dean had unnecessarily intervened, costing the 42 year old his shot at redemption against the man who handed him one of the more brutal losses of his storied career.

“I believe I was robbed of a chance to show the kind of fighter and person that I am, and that I don’t quit and that, you know, there’s going to have to be a lot more that one or two punches or elbows or whatever land before that fight should be ended,” Shamrock told Sherdog.com.

“I earned my reputation in MMA,” he continued. “I’m in the Hall of Fame. I’ve earned my stripes to be able to have the opportunity to go in there and win or lose a fight based upon my performance.”

Shamrock’s position seems to have been backed up by the Zuffa brass and UFC president Dana White, who commented that he thought fans didn’t get what they paid for when they ordered UFC 61. That stance has left referee Dean swinging in the breeze, a scapegoat of sorts for not only Shamrock but for Zuffa in its attempt to make another fight between the two popular fighters.

In any event, Shamrock is looking forward to righting the wrong he feels was done to him. But he also wanted to make sure it didn’t happen again, so he insisted that “Big” John McCarthy would officiate this third bout with Ortiz.

“He reffed the last fight I was with Tito and I was happy with that fight, even though I got beat up pretty bad,” Shamrock said. “There was no question on who won the fight or if it was stopped early or not early enough. John did a good job on that fight. I was cut, there was blood running into my eyes and I would’ve kept fighting because that’s what I do. But John saw that and knew the right time.

“We wanna make sure that this fight, that we get an opportunity to actually go in there and let our hands go and let punches fly and elbows fly and knees fly.”

Shamrock obviously feels that with McCarthy being the third man in the Octagon provides him with a better opportunity to showcase his skills.

As for the controversial second fight, “The World’s Most Dangerous Man” said he hasn’t re-watched it. And as far as he is concerned not only does he not consider it a loss, he feels the fight never really happened.

Shamrock said he knows he can’t just rely on his physical tools to get past his younger foe. He will have to call upon the experience he has accumulated over his many years in the sport.

“I’m not the fighter I was at 32 years old, where I’m just going to go out there and take someone down and pound them into the mat,” Shamrock said. “I’m gonna have a lot of strategy.”

With two extremely one-sided losses against Ortiz, Shamrock knows he is in for a tough night. Yet Shamrock remains confident in his ability to do what it takes to get the job done.

“This fight is not an easy fight for me,” he said. “This fight is a tough fight for me and every fight I step in there, you know, the last couple years, has been really tough for me. I’m not the dominating force I used to be, but I will win the fight. I will win the fight. I’ll find a way to win the fight. I don’t know how. I don’t know when, what round, but I’ll find a way to win. I’m gonna go in there and I will find a way to win this fight.”

Shamrock appeared to be in phenomenal shape when Sherdog.com visited his camp two weeks before this fight with Ortiz, which airs live Tuesday on Spike TV, and he may have to fall back on that conditioning to carry deep into the fight.

“It’s not about me keeping pace with Tito, it’s about me keeping pace with me,” Shamrock stated inside his Lion’s Den academy in Susanville, Calif., where he prepared for the upcoming bout. “I control the pace of the fight, I push the fight in the way that I want it pushed, whatever Tito does, I shut him down. That’s just the way it is.”

Confident as ever, Shamrock went on to explain why he thinks he can outlast Ortiz, who has been noted for his intense cardio training.

“Tito does a few things good and when he does those things good he can go all day,” analyzed Shamrock. “But when Tito gets put in a bad spot, Tito gets tired.”

Whether or not Shamrock can put Ortiz in one of those bad positions remains to be seen, but one thing will be for certain after the final bell rings and a winner is announced: Shamrock will not make any snap decisions about his retirement from the sport he loves so dearly.

“I won’t make any decisions until after this fight,” he promised. “I won’t make it in the ring. I won’t make it the day after the fight.”

He went on to say that his decision to retire will come after consulting with his family and those closest to him — and that it will be a “unanimous decision” when it does come.

Either way, the former UFC superfight champion is thinking about his legacy in the sport of mixed martial arts.

Noting that it’s important for him to be remembered as a good person more than as a good fighter, Shamrock said, “If I wanted, through all of it, to be remembered for one thing and that was one, that I always had respect for myself, respect for my fans and respect for the sport.”

That legacy will include one of the greatest upsets in the history of the sport if Shamrock is able to pull off the victory over the heavily favored Ortiz. And it would be a defining moment in a career full of some of the biggest moments in MMA history.